Paparazzi Pigeons and Wild Dancing Poppies

 Sunday afternoon, in Teignmouth, my husband and I are standing on a small foot bridge over the stepped river which runs through the park. I'm taking photos of these ducking and diving waterproof

mallard ducks.

And this single pigeon.  When suddenly a paparazzi of pigeons on the other side of the bank fly up en masse, swoop down in one great flapping cloud and land in line on the rails of the bridge. It's as if they are saying Me too! Take my photo too!  I'm beautiful too! 

Or maybe they think my camera is a bag of bread and they're hoping for crumbs.  For a moment I feel like the Feed The Birds woman in My Fair Lady.

 When I stop snapping I see one of them is eating a berry out of my husband's hand. He 's also crunching on one. I suggest he spits it out.

I've asked him before not to eat any wild berries - I don't think these Cotoneaster ones will poison  him but he no longer remembers the rules of the countryside - if it's bright and edible and free he'll put it in his mouth...

Further up the river two black swans are preening and 

cleaning themselves. Reminding me of the wonderful sight of a single black swan

riding the surf one evening  on the shores of Lake Taupo in New Zealand....where we were on holiday this time last year.

This morning my sister and I wandered round the rather chilly Aladdin's cave of one of Exeter's best fabric shops looking for material to make curtains for my room. The bolts of cloth were stacked ceiling high and when we spotted one on the very top shelf, I unravelled the end, and it rippled down in a soft linen sheet splashed with wild dancing poppies in all the colours of Tuscany in the summer.

The perfect backdrop for my new snuggle chair.